


The Sharpie Incident

by randomwriter57



Series: Reigisa Week 2016 [5]
Category: Free!
Genre: Fluff and Crack, M/M, it's just silly sorry, kind of??, sharpie markers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-14
Updated: 2016-01-14
Packaged: 2018-05-13 23:40:05
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,890
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5721418
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/randomwriter57/pseuds/randomwriter57
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Nagisa learns a lot about Rei, and a lot about himself, too.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Sharpie Incident

**Author's Note:**

> This fic has to be the most fun fic I’ve written for this week. I’m not one for body-mod in general (piercings and tattoos and stuff), so in the end I went with fake body-mod. I hope you enjoy this fic anyway!
> 
> Written for [Reigisa Week](http://reigisaweek.tumblr.com) #3, Day Five: Body-Mod.

Nagisa sighs, leaning his chin on his arms. "How much longer do we have to study for?"

"Did you finish your homework?" Rei asks in response, and Nagisa blanches. "I thought not. You need to finish your homework, Nagisa-kun."

Pouting, he looks up at Rei. He knows it's important to get his homework finished, but he feels too restless right now. All he wants to do is move and talk and do something other than sit with his head down. "Can we at least take a break?"

Rei gives him a smile, and Nagisa knows he's won. "Okay. But just a short one, okay?"

"Okaaaay!"

Nagisa falls back onto the carpet behind him, grinning. "All this studying makes me want to do something."

"Like what?"

"I dunno." He traces the ceiling with his eyes, trying to think of something to do. While he wants to do something active, going out anywhere will only be troublesome, and Rei would never allow it when they still have studying left to do. It has to be something in Rei's home, then, not that there's all that much to do here. Usually he would play a game with his friends, but Rei doesn't even have a console. Gasping, he sits up. "I have an idea!"

Rei grimaces. "I don't like the sound of this."

"We should play that game!" Nagisa says, feeling as though he's found the answer to the most important problem he's ever had.

"Game?" Rei raises an eyebrow, puzzled.

"That game where I draw something and you have to guess what it is!"

"Pictionary, you mean?" Not looking impressed, Rei shakes his head. "Why on earth do you want to play that?"

"Come on, Rei-chan, it'll be fun!" He moves around the table to Rei's side and nuzzles his head into his shoulder. "Play with me!"

Rei tries to ignore Nagisa's pleading, but in the end even he cannot resist Nagisa's tactics. "Alright, alright. Hold on a moment while I get some paper, then. You can get some pens from my pencil case."

As Rei walks away, Nagisa almost feels blessed. Despite his usual protectiveness over his pencil case, not even allowing his classmates to borrow materials from it ("They always steal whatever I lend them!"), he is allowing Nagisa of all people to venture inside of it. This must mean Rei trusts him. Nagisa grins, heart soaring. It's not much, but it's good to know that he has a friend as good as Rei alongside him.

Wasting no more time, Nagisa slides open the pencil case and digs his hand in, pulling out a handful of various writing implements. It's amazing how many pens Rei has - there are ballpoints, fine-liners, highlighters, even felt-tip pens for colouring. (This surprises Nagisa because Rei doesn't seem like the type of person to make much art or to colour many pictures. He's more of a science nerd, always highlighting his notes and looking for the perfect method of studying.)

But it is none of these pens which Nagisa is interested in, for when he delves in once more, he pulls out a pen more profound and amazing than any other pen inside of Rei's pencil case. The sharpie marker. The holiest of pens, it is the sharpie marker which all students seek for in any situation which requires pen in class. And Rei has a full set of them.

Slowly, Nagisa removes the lid from a pink marker, looking carefully at the pen. It's been so long since he's held one so fine, so fresh. The ones at school are always wrecked from overuse, so Nagisa can't help but see this marker as pure. He takes a deep breath through his nose, inhaling the distinctive sharpie scent which burns the nose a little after a moment. This is the scent of high school.

"Sorry," Rei says as he walks back into the room. "I couldn't find any plain paper anywhere, for some reason. We'll just have to- what are you doing?"

Nagisa turns to Rei, sharpie still uncapped in his hand. Rei blanches, his face changing from his usual skin tone to the palest white in the span of a second. Not a moment later, Rei lunges towards Nagisa and pulls the sharpie out of his hand.

"Please do not inhale solvents in my room!"

"I wasn't!" Nagisa wails, slumping back. There's no use in fighting for the marker. "I'm just surprised you have sharpie markers, is all."

Rei furrows his brows, plucking the cap from the table and putting it back on the marker, trapping its scent inside. "A family member bought me them for my birthday. I don't like the scent much, so I don't usually buy them myself."

Nagisa senses that Rei is still distrustful of him for what he saw, so he says, "I honestly wasn't trying to do anything, Rei-chan. I'm not that type of person."

Face softening, Rei sits back down. "I know. Sorry for assuming."

"So, shall we start playing?" Nagisa says, remembering why he even had the sharpies in the first place.

"I couldn't find any plain paper, though."

"Don't you have any lined paper?"

"No. I'm not ripping some out of my class jotters either, before you ask."

Nagisa pouts. He was looking forward to playing, too. "I guess we've had enough of a break now, anyway. We should probably finish that homework."

Rei smiles, grateful that Nagisa didn't suggest any other ridiculous activities. "That sounds good."

They study for a while after that. It's no surprise to Nagisa that Rei finishes first, but when he leans his head on his arms and falls asleep, Nagisa is sure that something must be wrong. After all, Rei isn't usually the type of person to fall asleep anywhere except for his bed (and on one memorable occasion, on the train). For a moment, Nagisa watches him breathe deeply, completely relaxed. Then, he notices that Rei's bare arm is exposed in front of his head.

He grins deviously.

Ten minutes and a few sharpie markers later, Rei's left arm is decorated with doodles of everything from spirals to butterflies to silly words such as 'I am a nerd'. Nagisa finds he is having too much fun, and all he can smell is sharpie markers, but he continues anyway, drawing a smiley face beside one of the butterflies. He hasn't had many chances to give people sharpie tattoos before, though, so he continues, drawing a heart near Rei's wrist.

He blinks. A heart? That's not usually the type of thing he draws on anything, from his school jotters to another person. Besides, isn't it a little suspicious to draw a heart on his best friend's wrist? Rei won't think anything of it, but Nagisa doesn't want to risk anything.

(Although, part of him wants to leave it, to see how Rei will react. Another part of him wants to know why he drew a heart without thinking. Probably because it's one of the easiest shapes to draw. Or maybe it's something else, something that even Nagisa hasn't realised yet.)

He caps the sharpie marker, looking around the room. Rei's bedroom is immaculate, which means Nagisa has no idea where to look for anything like hand sanitiser or facial wipes to get the sharpie off. The last resort would be to use soap and water, but Rei will wake up if he tries that, so he puts the idea to the back of his mind and sits back. Sharpie is usually difficult to get off, anyway. Most likely, Rei will wake up at any of his ideas. All he can do is hope Rei doesn't notice the heart tattooed by his wrist.

Why would he even draw a heart, anyway? It sounds like something from a shoujo manga, where the female protagonist draws a heart on her love interest's hand to show him her feelings. Nagisa doesn't know any manga about drawing on people with sharpies, but it's the same idea. But Nagisa doesn't like Rei in that way, does he? He can admit that Rei is attractive - with a body like that, sculpted from years of track, plus two of swimming, there's no way anyone could say otherwise. And he gets on well with Rei, too - every day, he is at Rei's side, laughing and swimming together. They always go to and from school together, since they live so close by. Even thinking back to last year, when he thought Rei was going to quit the swim club, he couldn't imagine a life at Iwatobi High School without Rei beside him. He didn't want to go back to how it was in middle school, or before he met Haru, Makoto and Rin. He still can't imagine a life without Rei. When they're in university, too, he doesn't want Rei to forget him, or to stop being friends with him for any reason.

Surely that doesn't mean he feels that way about Rei, though?

Now he thinks about it, if he does feel like that, it would explain why his heart hurt so much when, after hearing that Rei was not actually leaving track club, they came to the conclusion that Rei had a girlfriend (and later, a boyfriend). But he doesn't feel like that. Right? He's not sure any more. It's not as though he gets nervous around Rei or anything. From what he's read in his sisters' manga (don't judge him, it's not that bad actually), when you're in love, you're supposed to feel nervous around your love interest and have a heart like a jackhammer. Rather than that, Nagisa feels calm around Rei. Like he can be completely himself around him. When it's the two of them, he feels at ease. He feels that way with all of his friends, though.

He looks at Rei more closely, laying his head on the table beside the sharpie-covered arm. Rei's face is barely visible beyond it, obscured by his arm and hair. Nagisa doesn't need to see Rei's face, though - he remembers it well enough. His red glasses. His long lashes, brushing against them. Those violet eyes. His nose, his eyebrows, his skin. His lips. They look nice, he recalls. At one point, he's sure he thought, 'Girls would like kissing those.' Carefully, he picks his head up and looks over Rei's arm at his face, at those slightly parted lips. Maybe he would like to kiss those, too.

Backs away. No. He can't be having that kind of thought about his best friend. Rei would be so weirded out if he knew Nagisa was thinking about kissing him. Though he can't deny that he's curious, now. But no. This is bad. He needs to calm down, or to wake up Rei, or something. Anything to get him out of this situation.

Luckily, Rei groans a little, his eyes fluttering open just in time. A second later, they scrunch up in disgust. "What is that smell?"

Nagisa pales. He'd forgotten about the sharpie. "A-ah, Rei-chan, you're awake!"

Rei looks up at him tiredly, then looks at his arm. His face morphs into anger. "What."

"A-ah, I can explain-"

"What the- Nagisa-kun!"

"Aargh!"

And so, Nagisa leaves Rei's house later that evening even more confused about some things and certain about one: he will never touch Rei's sharpies again. Ever.

**Author's Note:**

> don't inhale sharpies, kids.
> 
> Follow me at [randomactuallywrites-57](http://randomactuallywrites-57.tumblr.com) on tumblr | [@randomwriter57](http://twitter.com/randomwriter57) on twitter!


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